Fruit Wines

[scyrene]

It occurred to me not long after getting my TM, I could use it to transform my home-winemaking - much cleaner and more controlled than using pans.

So far this summer I've only made one batch: plum wine, from a glut of fruit at my grandparents' house. The rough recipe was: lots of plums (they're yellow-green, turning gold when they get very ripe) - probably about 2kg overall. To be honest, I don't often follow strict recipes in this area, preferring intuition - if the liquid tastes good at the start, it should be okay after fermentation and racking. I washed the fruit, cut off any rotten bits, and put it in batches into the TM bowl. Then, I set the temperature to 90  for about 20 minutes. With the timing, I was looking for the fruit to disintegrate, so my attitude is if it takes longer, give it more time. Then, I passed the slurry through a sieve (to remove skins and stones) into a bowl, then once it was all done, I re-sieved it back into the TM in batches, topped each up with boiling water to 1.5 litres, and then added 150g white sugar. Then I set it to 70 degrees, and speed 1-2, for around 2 minutes, just to dissolve the sugar. I poured it into a sterilised demijohn and once it was body temperature, added wine yeast and an airlock. It's bubbling away as I type

Does anyone else use their TM for winemaking? Any recipes/tips? I have a huge bowl of blackberries waiting in the kitchen for my next batch 

[Thermomixer]

Haven't tried for years - we used to make it when we had fruit trees.  and apricot brandy too - yum

[scyrene]

Well, I finally sorted my blackberries!

I had harvested just over 2.3kg. They were washed twice, then I filled the TM bowl with just fruit to about 1.5l, and set it to  for 10 minutes at 90C. A pulse about midway at ~speed 3 mixed them up (but I didn't want to purée, as there were still odd beasties in there). This reduced the fruit to a pulp and liquid. I sieved it gently, not pressing. This process was repeated for the remaining fruit. The liquid was then sweetened to just above what tasted balanced (since much of the sugar will be converted to alcohol, you want it sweeter than you'd like to begin with, unless you want a very dry wine), then reheated to 70C at speed 2 (not  ) for 5 minutes. I poured the sweetened juice (which amounted to around 2 litres) into a clean, sterile demijohn, then topped it up to around 4 litres with hot water. I added wine yeast when it had cooled to around blood temp.

Now, I am tempted to convert a glut of home-grown potatoes into wine, though I will actually follow a recipe for this as I've never done it before!

[Thermomixer]

Hey, have you got a still too - we can make some vodka 

The wines sound great - you sound a bit like River Cottage's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - would love to be somewhere like that !!

[brazen20au]

how exciting, can't wait to hear how it turns out! how long til it's ready?

[scyrene]

Oh yes, HF-W's self-sufficiency does appeal, but I'm probably too much of a fair-weather gardener to succeed

These wines will probably have finished fermenting in 2-3 months, although if you want a sweeter and/or weaker brew, you could stop the fermentation earlier with heat or Campden tablets. They'll hopefully be drinkable straight away, but most books on the subject say it's best to wait as long as possible - up to several years. I don't think mine will last that long though - I don't have the patience!